Ronnie Sawyer

Scholarship Analysis 6

In Carolyn Dinshaws chapter, Eunuch Hermeneutics in Chaucers Sexual Poetics she

argues that the Pardoner is a purposely left ambiguous in regards his gender. Dinshaw continues

to point out that the Pardoners physical description is ambiguously left to the readers

interpretation as the general prologue describes as him as a gelding or a mare (I.691).

Dinshaws argument centers on the Pardoners definite sense of lacking, which originates from

the Pardoner either having no testicles or generally displaying qualities that would be considered

more feminine such as his long yellow hair or his smooth face. She mentions that the Pardoner is

frequently being covered and uncovered in an attempt to make sense of the body underneath. The

Pardoner is a very skilled speaker and uses his words to fool Christian people, and is used to

cover the Pardoner just like his appearance does. It is Dinshaws belief that the Pardoner is an

unmediated being beyond labels such as gender and language, saying that the pardoner is based

on the incarnate Word, on the body of Christ, which is itself an embodied word; it would be a

poetics founded on the body of Christ who is God, in whom there is no lack, no division, no

separation, no difference (183). After mentioning this Dinshaw moves on to speak about the

Parson, another church person, but fails to go into why its so important that the Pardoner is

aliened with the Church, given that he is trying to make up for his lack.

The Pardoner carries several fake relics with him as he travels around the country

delivering his moral speeches. These relics act are very important to the Pardoners character

because they act as a stand in for the Pardoner himself as they both appear to be important

Christian figures but are both ultimately fakes. The Pardoner disguises himself with his words,

and uses his ability to speak to a crowd to convince them of both his own authenticity as well as
his relics. After the Pardoner has told his tale he offers the other pilgrims the chance to buy one

of his relics, even after he has clearly told them that theyre all fakes. The Host has a adverse

reaction to this and says:

But, by the croys which that Seint Eleyne fond,

I wolde I hadde thy coillons in myn hond

In stide of relikes or of seintuarie.

Lat kutte hem of, I wol thee helpe hem carie;

They shul be shryned in an hogges toord!"

This Pardoner answerde nat a word;

So wrooth he was, no word ne wolde he seye.

(IV. 951-57)

This threat is very important to understanding who the Pardoner really is and his lack of a

gender. As soon as the host threatens to castrate the Pardoner suddenly his words fail him, which

is relevant because his ability to manipulate words was his only defense against those who would

try to understand him by uncovering who he really is. Once words fail the Pardoner, like his

relics, he becomes an empty shell lacking truth regarding his own origins. The Pardoners lack of

wholeness and truth are most likely what drove him to work for the Church. As Dinshaw points

out, God is supposed to be the only one who lacks nothing, so by associating himself with God,

the Pardoner suddenly appears to be whole. Though that raises the question, can an outside

appearance make something or someone whole despite a corroded interior that defies everything
the outside tries to stand for? Both the relics and the Pardoner are not what they claim to be, the

Pardoner even admits that he isnt a man who practices what he preaches. One of the first things

that the Pardoner says in The Pardoners Prologue is Radix malorum est Cupiditas (IV.334)

but then goes on to say, I preche of no thyng but for coveityse (IV.424). This shows beyond a

doubt that the Pardoner is a hypocrite and is unwilling to do as he compels others to do. The

relics are just the same, as the Pardoner preaches of their greatness, but in reality they arent able

to be the holy objects the Pardoner claims for them to be. No matter how many great speeches

the Pardoner provides he is eternally unable to speak something into existence, whether it be his

own sense of fullness or authenticity for his relics.